2000Km-1243 mile club

Weekly check-in: 6-12 Sep. (Read 356 times)

One last Tri for me tomorrow morning then I'm going back to run focus for the winter. This year of experimenting with tri's has been fun but I'm not sure I can maintain the amount of training needed to be competitve. At least I accomplished my goal of an age group award for tri's in my first year. I'll do my best for another tomorrow, but it's a big field so chances aren't very good.

Dutchie - I've been coming up with some goals for 2011. Focusing on running over tri's with some lofty goals in all my distances. I've found the planning process to be very motivational. I've got a bunch of written schedules and interim goals laid out. Maybe some new goals would give you the kick in the pants (trousers - or however you say it on that side of the pond) that you need to get back out there.

I ran my 13 miles today, but had to stop in the middle of mile 10 to stretch out my right hamstring. It was giving me an increasing sharp pain medial right knee and clearly wasn't going away unless I stretched. Dang! I wanted to make it all the way through without stopping! Still it was a vast improvement over last weekend. I kept trying to focus on my posture, trying to relax , and settle into a comfortable pace. I thought about adding on a mile to make 14 since I felt okay through the 13th; but found that I had only mentally prepared for 13 and completely fell apart when that was done. I made it to 13.4 and gave up.

I got my long run in yesterday. I walked the first mile as my legs were pretty stiff, ran/ walked the remaining 14 miles in a 9:1 ratio.

Positives: It was alot better than the 13 miles a couple of weeks ago and I attribute that to cooler weather (perfect 13ºC) and a cup of coffee at mile 10 (why haven't I tried this sooner!) I definitely felt that I could have kept going.

Negatives: I am slower than I anticipated for September. I attribute this for sacrificing miles for weight training, which is OK - I added a goal of reducing fat so I guess you can't have it all. Right now I'm learning how to balance it all so I can manage next year better. I'm not sore at all today but pretty tired, it was a stressful work week and I think I'm fighting a cold.

Dutchie: I'm glad you got your run in - good for you in toughing it out. I've got stiff calves too I think they are taking alot from weight training squats and dynamic lunges. I think we both should get a massage.

Heffa: My trainer has me thinking about some goals for next year too. Yesterday's 14/ 15 miles give me more confidence to train longer distances (though I'm still focusing on HM)

Dutchie, maybe you just need a break from running? mental break, physical break, whatever. Make it fun again.

As for tapering for the HM, my LR next weekend will be a 10; otherwise will pretty much do the same weekday running that I have. It's not much of a base and my time won't be what I've done in the past, but I'm (surprisingly) OK with that. I really just want to be able to run it without stopping and without being really painful.

It was meant to be a motivating tool for developing my LR and it's workimg in that regard. After the HM, I plan to continue extending the distance and building my mid-week LR.

I ended the tri year on a high note. My best performances in all disciplines, including transitions! 1:15:50 with a 21:07 for the finishing 5K. The large and competitive field kept me from another age group award but I am very happy about my personal performance. I started the year finishing over 7 minutes behind my mentor and today I could see him about 20 sec in front of me at the finish. Now it's time to focus on some running.

3.6 easy with strides. It was a good week with 44 miles, over half on trails in the heat and a 10k race. I feel like I'm close to being where I was in May before my injury. Still a long way to go but I feel like it's possible to get my goal races done.

"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"

"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain

"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.